Hard Charger Condolences: We were notified by Bob Imler of the passing of the former SP4 William A. Lambert who passed away on 2-24-2016 at his home in Nevada.
William served on Gun #5 with C-1-30th FA in 1969-70. Your battle is over now Hard Charger ~ Rest in Peace!

Hard Charger History for March-May 1968: On 24 March 1968, my Bn FDC Section was ordered to load up all of our equipment on trucks and convoy from Camp Evans to the Combat Base at Dong Ha. We arrived that afternoon just in time to be greeted by NVA rockets fired out of the DMZ. The next morning of 25 March we were greeted with NVA rockets for breakfast. We became part of a large truck convoy heading down Highway 9 to Ca Lu. When we reached the refugee camp at Cam Lo, our convoy was hit with by an NVA 85mm gun and small arms fire. We had a 40mm “DUSTER” leading the convoy, and it was destroyed by RPGs. The convoy turned around and headed back to Dong Ha just in time to be hit by NVA rockets again! The next morning, we left early, and had helicopter gunships flying escort over us, and we made it safely all the way to Ca Lu. They had us set up just north of Ca Lu overlooking an old airfield which became LZ Stud.

After setting up initially in tents we were designated as the 1st Cavalry Division Artillery FORWARD. Our mission was to control all artillery assets, and coordinate all air strikes in this Area of Operation. Operation PEGASUS kicked off on I April 1968, and we were busy day and night controlling 31 batteries of artillery including 1st Cav artillery, USMC artillery, USARV artillery, and RVN artillery. By 6 April 1968, the Command Post of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Air Cav was inserted into the Marine Combat Base at Khe Sanh as they were greeted by some of the besieged Marines. Victory was near at hand and the next ten days were spent by elements of the 1st Air Cav cleaning out pockets of enemy resistance. On 11 April 1968, the four guns of B-1-30th FA at LZ SNAPPER were redeployed back to LZ SHARON near the 1st Air Cav's AO near CAMP EVANS as Operation PEGASUS started winding down.

On 15 April 1968, after firing more than 20,000 rounds on 1,490 fire missions, and completing ten Firing Battery moves in a little more than three weeks, the 1-30th FA began the process of disengaging the remainder of its elements from this operation. We were alerted for immediate movement back to CAMP EVANS to prepare for what was soon to become the bloody assault into the A SHAU Valley. {Note: As far as I know the 1st Air Cav Division was never thanked by the US Marines for saving them at Khe Sanh. Nor have they ever "forgiven" the 1st Air Cav for saving them at Khe Sanh either!}